Danica zooming away
Post-racing endeavors begin in earnest
INDIANAPOLIS – Danica Patrick’s racing career ended in heartbreaking fashion when she crashed into the wall during the Indianapolis 500. She was done after 68 of 200 laps.
But while the 36-year-old left Indianapolis Motor Speedway with crushing disappointment, it was a joyous Sunday for Will Power, 37, who finally captured his first Indy 500 crown in 11 attempts in the legendary race. The Australian, one of the best IndyCar drivers of his generation, collected the one prize missing from his mantle after racking up 33 wins (before Sunday) and the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series championship.
As Power prepares for his next race — the Detroit Grand Prix doubleheader this weekend — Patrick is ready to put racing in her rearview mirror. The nowretired driver has a lot to look forward to because even though her trailblazing career on the track is over — she is the only woman to consistently race full time at the top of both IndyCar and NASCAR — she’s not truly retiring.
Now, it’s all about business for Patrick, whose entrepreneurial endeavors have always been about her own life.
“I’ve been racing since I was 10, I’ve been working out since I was 14, I’ve been cooking since I was 16 and I’ve been drinking since I was 18,” Patrick told USA TODAY.
She has her own athleisure wear clothing line, Warrior by Danica Patrick, and a wine company, Somnium, and recently published a health and fitness book, Pretty Intense. The clothing line is “always something that I wanted,” she explained. Her other businesses evolved organically, and her personality “is what made them happen.”
After a hectic few months preparing for and racing in NASCAR’s Daytona
500 in February and the Indy 500 on Sunday, Patrick isn’t shifting into vacation mode yet. This weekend, she’s off to her vineyard, which she purchased in
2009, on Howell Mountain in California and will attend the Auction Napa Valley charity event. Along with “lots of good food and wine for a weekend,” she’ll be giving rides at nearby Sonoma Raceway, where she competed 12 times between IndyCar and the NASCAR Cup Series.
Then she’s preparing for the ESPYs in July, where she’ll be the first female host, and hopefully sneak a little summer vacation in there, too.
But Patrick also wants to start working on expanding her clothing line.
Warrior officially launched in January 2017, and its collections are sold on HSN. As the creative director of the brand, the designs are based on functional elements Patrick looks for in clothes she wears that are often missing while the prints are inspired by everything from food to art.
Leggings, tank tops, sweatshirts, sports bras and faux leather jackets are among the items sold online. It’s a mixture of clothes designed for women to wear during the day, at the gym and often both. Reasonable pricing is a fundamental element of the brand, too, because Patrick said a high-quality shirt doesn’t have to cost $100.
“She was a NASCAR person, but she’s got a rocker vibe and we wanted to bring that across,” said David Kupferberg, the executive vice president of sales for G-III Apparel Group and the chief of Warrior. “She was really involved from the ground up and really became a student of learning what the manufacturing process is, what the fit process is and what the prints are. So everything has to be signed off by her.”
Some athleisure items have the Warrior name or logo on them — Patrick joked it’s not “subliminal messaging” — although she said they’re all designed to empower with attention to detail to fit women of all sizes.
“It’s definitely heavy on the leisure and not on the ‘ath,’ so I want to do more of the athletic side of it,” she said.
Between growing Warrior and Somnium, Patrick is promoting Pretty Intense — a 300-page book released in January that is filled with difficult workouts, her favorite recipes as an avid amateur chef and some spiritual reflection. She photographed the food herself, which was a new challenge but not the hardest part.
“Measuring is actually the worst because I don’t measure,” Patrick said.
Before moving on to her next chapter, Patrick was able to finish her racing career with longtime sponsor GoDaddy, which sponsored her cars at Daytona International Speedway and Indianapolis. As she completes her shift from driver to entrepreneur, the company is helping her market and build her brand online.
“She has done an awesome job of recognizing her own passions and traits, and she’s applying them to the businesses she’s creating,” GoDaddy CMO Barb Rechterman said.
Patrick might be done speeding around the racetrack, but she’s not going anywhere.